Blackberry and Apple Entremet

This cake is completely bonkers. I'm not entirely sure how this happened, it looked so much more subtle in my head!

My blackberry and apple entremet was made of seven layers, and on reflection I think keeping it to a maximum of five is probably sensible. The two layers I found unnecessary were the marshmallow and the macaron layer. Both of which added a lot to the time it took to make, and added little to the flavour. So here is the final list:

Biscuit base with hazelnut praline and popping candy

Blackberry mousse

Blackberry and almond cake

Caramelised apples

Vanilla custard

 

All this is surrounded by a layer of joconde sponge decorated with tuile batter to create a patterned outer layer which holds all the fillings together.

This takes a whole day to make, so it's not a baking project for the faint-hearted, but it creates a satisfyingly spectacular cake in return for your efforts.

Things I have learnt from making this entremet...

Don't whisk together the tuile ingredients for too long,you want a batter rather than a fluffly sponge so try not to incorporate too much air.

 

To get neat diagonal lines in the tuile batter, spread an even layer over the baking paper whilst in the tin, then lift the paper on to the worktop before scraping the pastry comb across the whole surface. You will end up with excess tuile batter over the edges of the paper which you need to scrape off with a palette knife, but otherwise you will not be able to get the comb into the corners of the tray and the edges will be wasted.

Fill your washing up bowl with cold water before you start making the custard – mine started to split but I had this ready so was able to put the base of the pan in the water and whisk it up so it became smooth again. I didn't actually believe this would work so was quite pleasantly surprised that it did.

Tuile batter:

110g unsalted butter

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon icing sugar

4 tablespoons egg white

5 tablespoons bread flour

• Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth
• Slowly add the egg whites whilst continuing to beat
• Add flour and food colouring and beat until combined
• Spread the mixture over the base of a 30cm square baking tray lined with baking parchment
• Use a pastry comb to scrape lines or patterns into the batter
• Freeze for 1-2 hours or until frozen solid
• brush each of the gaps with gold lustre dust using a small paintbrush and return to the freezer whilst you make the joconde sponge

Joconde sponge:

85g ground almonds

85g icing sugar

30g plain flour

¼ teaspoon salt

3 whole eggs

1 egg yolk

2 egg whites

30g caster sugar

30g unsalted butter

• Preheat the oven to 200°C
• Melt the butter in the microwave and set aside to cool
• Pulse the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor until very finely ground
• Add the flour, salt, whole eggs and egg yolks and whizz up to combine
• In a clean mixing bowl whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, begin gradually adding the sugar and whisk to stiff peaks
• Pour the contents of the food processor onto the egg whites and stir together, you don't need to be too delicate at this stage as you need to get a lot of the air out of the mixture
• Fold in the cooled melted butter
• Set aside 1/3 of the mixture to make the blackberry sponge layer, and put the rest of the mixture in a piping bag
• Pipe the joconde batter over the frozen tuile batter, smoothing out very gently where necessary to prevent smudging the pattern underneath.
• Bake for around 8-10 minutes, turning a few times whilst baking, until the middle springs back when lightly pressed
• Peel off the parchment whilst still warm and transfer to a wire rack to cool
• Cut out two strips 8cm wide and use to line the insides of an 18cm cake tin

Blackberry sponge:

1/3 of the joconde batter

75g frozen blackberries, defrosted

• Line a 15cm round cake tin with baking parchment
• Stir the blackberries into the sponge and bake for 10mins whilst the rest of the joconde is in the oven

Hazelnut praline and digestive biscuit base:

70g porridge oats

70g wholemeal flour

70g cold unsalted butter

40g light brown sugar

pinch of salt

½ teaspoon baking powder

25-40ml milk

½ batch of hazelnut praline

40g popping candy

• Pulse the porridge oats in a food processor to break them down to a finer texture
• Add the flour, butter, sugar, salt and baking powder and pulse until it forms crumbs
• Slowly add the milk until it just starts to come together
• Tip the mixture on to a piece of clingfilm, wrap up and chill for 30 minutes
• Preheat the oven to 180°C
• Roll out the chilled dough to 3-4mm thick (which is easiest between two pieces of greaseproof paper)
• Tear up into rough strips and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment
• Bake for 10-15mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool
• Put the cooled biscuits it a plastic bag and and crush up with a rolling pin
• Mix with the hazelnut praline paste and popping candy before pressing into the base of the cake tin lined with the joconde sponge
• Chill in the fridge whilst you make the blackberry mousse

Blackberry Mousse:

400g frozen blackberries

110g caster sugar

150ml double cream

½ teaspoon powdered gelatin

• Cook the blackberries and sugar over a low heat for 10-15 minutes
• Pour a tablespoon of water into a cup and sprinkle over the gelatin
• Push the cooked blackberries through a wire sieve with the back of a spoon to remove the seeds
• Stir half the blackberry purée with the soaked gelatin over a low heat for 5 minutes or until the gelatin has dissolved
• Whip the cream and fold in the purée
• Pour on top of the biscuit base and chill for an hour before spreading over a thin layer of the reserved blackberry purée

Caramelised Apples:

6 small dessert apples

40g soft brown sugar

50g unsalted butter

pinch of salt

• Preheat the oven to 180°C
• Peel, core and chop the apples into thick slices, place in an oven proof dish
• Heat the sugar, butter and salt in a saucepan
• Bring to a gentle simmer and continue to cook whilst stirring occasionally
• Pour the caramel over the apples, cover with tin foil
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until the apples are soft and barely holding their shape
• Set aside to cool before spreading on top of the blackberry mousse/purée

Custard (that will hold it's shape):

2 eggs
70g sugar
1½ tablespoons cornflour
260ml double cream

• Whisk together the eggs, sugar and cornflour
• Heat the cream until just before it begins to simmer
• Pour the cream onto the egg mixture whisking continuously with a balloon whisk all the while
• Return to the pan and, continuing to whisk, heat very gently over a low heat
• Continue stirring until the mixture becomes very thick and ill hold its shape
• Place the pan into a bowl of cold water and whisk until cool
• pour over the apple layer and fill to within few millimetres of the top edge of the joconde sides

Sparkly gold glaze:

3g (¼ sachet) powdered gelatin
¼ pint hot water
½ teaspoon gold lustre dust

• Pour 2 tablespoons of cold water into a cup, sprinkle over the gelatin and stir
• Leave to stand for 5 minutes for the gelatin to absorb the water
• Add the gelatin to the ¼ pint of hot water and stir until dissolved
• Mix in the gold lustre dust and leave to cool, stirring occasionally to prevent the dust settling to the bottom
• Once it is thick but not set, pour it over the custard to form a very thin even layer and being careful not to let it spill over the sides of the cake

Leave to set in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight before arranging any decorations and serving